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OFFICIAL Sony UBP-X800M2 Owners Thread (No Price Talk)

926K views 5K replies 607 participants last post by  mickinct 
#1 · (Edited)
Starting this up now that they are in the wild, mine is on order from VE, hopefully shipping next week. It appears Best Buy may have them in store.


Product page:
https://www.sony.com/electronics/blu-ray-disc-players/ubp-x800m2

Support page:
https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/home-video-blu-ray-disc-players-recorders/ubp-x800m2

Manual:
https://www.sony.com/electronics/su...43cf5641adf90fb7113c8029fdb0239/47408221M.pdf

Does DV function the same way as the X700: YES

App to help sort which titles are DV or not:
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/149-...ners-thread-no-price-talk-7.html#post58159088
 
#2,816 ·
Yes, owners of all of the current brands of disk players have reported this issue with triple layer disks, not just Sony or the X800. The one that hasn't had reported problems has been OPPO, but they no longer make players.
 
#2,817 ·
^ The OPPO players also had/have problems with triple layer UHD discs. (Memories of OPPO's Beta Test Club -- Ah, those were the days!)

However, I can assure you retail discs needing to be cleaned even when new is a REAL THING. There's a film that's on the discs to reduce their tendency to stick together when moving through the manufacturing machinery. That's supposed to be washed off before packaging, but alas!

It is uniform, and transparent to the eye, so the new disc will LOOK perfect. But the tolerances for UHD discs, in particular, are so tight, that even a film like that can screw things up. Particularly for the triple layer discs, since they are already tougher to read.

There are myriad other ways discs can be made incorrectly. Things like the center hole being slightly off center, or the disc thickness off by a hair, none of which can be fixed by the user. Such discs just need to be replaced. But discs with that film still on them are EASY for the user to fix.
--Bob
 
#2,824 ·
You can add my player to the number that struggles with some movies. I watched Gladiator today and right at the 1:58 (hr:min) mark the player locked up. It wasn't a hard lock where I had to reboot the player as I could hit stop on the remote to get back to the main menu then start the movie again. However, for the rest of the movie the player struggled often losing pictures, sound, blocking or some combo of those three.

For some context, I unwrapped the case from it's cellophane and when I opened the case noticed a visible oil sheen in the inside of the case on the tray where the 4k disc was housed. Nothing appeared to be on the disc itself so I made a mental note but didn't consider cleaning the disc. I'll give the disc a clean and try it again.

I will be on the lookout for the same oil sheen in other cases when I open them up for the first time. I'm curious if this a residue from the manufacturing process, as has been stated by others in this thread. Or if the disc itself is outgassing something when sealed in the cellophane for some period of time.
 
#2,826 ·
Gladiator is a 100gb disc. A similar thing happened to me with 2001: a space auddyssey which is also a 100gb disc. I cleaned the disc again, even though I had already cleaned it twice before, and then I played the movie again and it continued. The disc was from the library.
 
#2,825 ·
This may seem obvious, but I recently got a DENON receiver and was listening to the DUNE 4k UHD disc at reference volume. It locked up several times, but I realized quickly it was the dual-sub-super-low-requencies that was locking it up. Put the 800m2 on a square of acoustic foam and it played without another lockup the rest of the time.

If others are having issues during loud playback with subs, this could help. If others are having lockups without such, you'll have to keep looking.

Cheers,

David
 
#2,827 ·
This may seem obvious, but I recently got a DENON receiver and was listening to the DUNE 4k UHD disc at reference volume. It locked up several times, but I realized quickly it was the dual-sub-super-low-requencies that was locking it up. Put the 800m2 on a square of acoustic foam and it played without another lockup the rest of the time.

If others are having issues during loud playback with subs, this could help. If others are having lockups without such, you'll have to keep looking.

Cheers,

David
I never thought of vibrations from the sub. I'll keep this in mind. How many subs do you have, how far away from the player are they, what type of floor do you have and what is your player sitting on, other than the foam?
 
#2,841 ·
Update on my experience with Gladiator. After inspecting the disc under direct light I could see that it had something on it in a few places. I washed the disc and dried it using a microfiber cloth. And unfortunately it did not fix the problem. The disc still hung at the layer transition. It did try to work its way through but ultimately skipped to the final few chapters.

I'll try another disc but this is not the experience I would expect from Sony's current "top of the line" player.

Can anyone recommend another player to try?
 
#2,842 ·
I'll try another disc but this is not the experience I would expect from Sony's current "top of the line" player.

Can anyone recommend another player to try?
It's not their top. They have another model above. But the Panasonic 820 or 840 is about $100 more.
 
#2,862 · (Edited by Moderator)
I have the 800m2 I really can‘t say I have had major issues with freezing or anything else for that matter. I recall a 4K disc did freeze but I forget the title, but when I let it sit for a while it resumed. So not sure what the cause was. Also, SACD, DVD-A, CD all play flawless. There are some things I do not like especially that DV is not automatically selected. Otherwise a good reliable universal player at a reasonable price.

For reference, I had a Linn Unidisk universal disc player that cost well over $5K+ and had several issues reading discs as well a a dead laser…replaced by the $168 Sony!
 
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#2,863 ·
@fredworld , thank you for the link. Are you saying that I should check the level of the player? It's in my rack and the rack was leveled but I'll double check the player itself.

@Transistorious , I've read all of your posts regarding your three different units. You have three units that work, great. Unfortunately that is not the case for myself or others. I'm happy with the unit as it plays my SACDs and DVD-As but I also use it for movies. I host movie nights with friends and wondering if we will be able to finish the movie or not be able to finish the movie is something that I will not accept. I will take your advice and see if I can get another 4K copy of Gladiator to see if maybe it is the disk itself. Unfortunately this is not a guaranteed solution as others have stated the problem is intermittent, often with the same disc.

My complaint is that this is a design flaw, manufacturing flaw, or supply chain flaw that should never have made it out of QA and testing. Optical disks are not a new technology and have been around for a long time. By now the design of such devices should be rudimentary with quality control that is repeatable. Especially from Sony.

Hopefully I'll be able to make progress this weekend. I may try performing a hard reset on the player. I noticed that when I tried Gladiator after cleaning the disc that the player tried to keep playing the movie but ultimately skipped ahead to the chapter I selected the first time through after the first lock up. Maybe something is sitting in the flash memory of the player.
 
#2,864 ·
Optical disks are not a new technology
But 100GB 4K discs are (relatively), and the manufacturing tolerances of the disc are very tight, and the precision needed to switch layers is incredibly small. Everything is basically operating on the edge of failure. Hell, my Oppo 203 has frozen on discs sometimes.
 
#2,866 ·
Ok, I"ll get my small bubble level out and give it a check and make any adjustments that are needed then give the disc another spin.

Great, so the tolerances of layer switching on a 100GB disc are a "known known!" Design to incorporate redundancies to handle the challenges.
 
#2,867 ·
This reminds me of people who watch football and say “if only the couch would do this, we would win”.

You make it sound so easy. Maybe you should get a job at Sony and show them what to do to fix these issues.
 
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#2,878 ·
Has anyone with a problematic player presented a warranty issue to Sony? If so, what were the results?
 
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#2,884 ·
when I had my x700 (which has even more problems than the x800m2) I contacted Sony and they said they never received any complaints about this unit. What does that tell you?
 
#2,899 ·
I’ve been having some issues recently with my Sony UBP-x800m2 4K player, where it flickers a black screen randomly when watching a movie. This didn’t happen when using this player on my previous TV, but it does on my new one. The model is the TCL R646. Any tips on how to fix this?
 
#2,902 ·
Try a different HDMI cable.
How long is your current cable? If longer than 15' then you might need an active HDMI cable.
What content creates the issue? All content? Just UHD discs? Streaming? What resolution?
What's your equipment chain?
 
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#2,909 ·
I generally read most all the 4k blu ray player threads. I haven't found one yet where AVS members don't complain of the occasional freeze, even the heralded Oppo (and I have 2 203s), although fortunately, I've only experienced it once or twice, although I'm hardly a power user anymore. It's a matter of tight tolerances for the bit rate trying to be achieved. It's just a fact of life. I"ve actually stopped buying 4k movies for that reason. I'll rent movies from redbox, and if I really like it and want a copy, I might just buy the blu ray. The last 4k movie I bought was the 10 Commandments. I made it all the way through that 3 + hour movie without a freeze.
 
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#2,912 ·
I having issues with this Sony and SACD via HDMI - I have the Nad T778 and I’m not sure if it accepts DSD - so therefore I try and force the Sony to output PCM but there is issues with the sound and the display on the Nad reads 3/2.1 176.4K

Before someone starts blaming the Nad here I have an old Pioneer Dvd 600 sacd player and the Nad has no issues playing SACD

What’s going on here?
 
#2,913 ·
I having issues with this Sony and SACD via HDMI - I have the Nad T778 and I’m not sure if it accepts DSD - so therefore I try and force the Sony to output PCM but there is issues with the sound and the display on the Nad reads 3/2.1 176.4K

Before someone starts blaming the Nad here I have an old Pioneer Dvd 600 sacd player and the Nad has no issues playing SACD

What’s going on here?
Check your SetUp settings in the Sony. How is your DSD Output Mode set? Should be AUTO. If the NAD doesn't accept DSD, well, then that's your issue. If AUTO mode is set then the Sony outputs LPCM for SACD discs if connected to an unsupported device.
 
#2,917 ·
^ I doubt you can set the Sony to output 88.2.

The HDMI handshake would not complete unless the NAD reported it could accept 176.4. That’s why I suggested there may be some sort of audio processing enabled in the NAD which doesn’t really work at 176.4. Something you might be able to turn off in the NAD.

You’ve not described the nature of the audio problem you are having. If it is dropouts, you should consider replacing the HDMI cable.
—Bob
 
#2,918 ·
From the Nad T778 forum :

I heard back from NAD support about the Multichannel SACD playback issue I posted about several posts back. They confirmed it's an issue with multichannel PCM at 176.4 KHz (which mainly Sony's output). No timeframe or assurance of a correction was given. Unfortunately, when shopping for SACD capable Blu-ray players, that spec is not normally given.
 
#2,924 ·
A quick update from the weekend.

@fredworld , thank you for the recommendation to check the level of the player. My rack was level but I forgot that it had to be moved and didn't double check. The player was not level but it is now level. Gladiator worked just fine and had no issues getting through the layer transition.

Friday night, I watched the KLSC 4k of The Great Escape and had zero problems and that movie is almost three hours in length. I thought all was good.

Today, I watched No Time to Die and around the two hour and six minute mark the disc froze up. This was right before the transition from Chapter 16 to Chapter 17. I washed the disc and tried it again and the disc played just fine. Thank you to @Transistorious for strongly recommending that the discs get cleaned prior to watching them. The No Time to Die disc looked perfectly clean when I inspected the disc before beginning the movie and there was no indication in the case itself that there might be some residue on the surface.

My plan is to continue to watch the 100GB discs to see if I can continue to narrow down any indictions of potential issues other than the size of the disc itself.

I went through many pages of this thread looking for movies listed that froze up and I found Dune and 2001: A Space Odyssey listed. Any other movies that are know challenges?
 
#2,925 ·
I researched tediously this 100 GB triple-layer 4K UHD discs:
1. Saving Private Ryan
2. The Dark Knight
3. The Dark Knight Rises
4. The Invisible Man
5. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
6. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
7. Lawrence Of Arabia
8. Schindler's List
9. Black Hawk Down
10. Transformers
11. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
12. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
13. Transformers: Age Of Extinction
14. Transformers: The Last Knight
Also, add Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016 and 2021 versions.
Good luck!
 
#2,927 ·
Is there any member who could reproduce a freezing problem with the same disc and time frame? Here in Europe the 800m2 seems like a mixed bag and not every player has issues. Maybe it's all related to a specific batch I don't know. The Mediatek MT8581 chip can't be the problem it's the same chip like the Oppo udp-203/205 players.
 
#2,928 ·
It has been said many times. There is a manufacturing residue when discs are pressed. It isn’t very visible, if at all. Not saying cleaning always helps, but that would explain why some discs work for some and not others. It depends on the amount of residue.
 
#2,930 ·
I don't think the problems are related to uhd discs. I know three people with a 800m2 and they exchanged the so called problem discs (Shazam and The Gladiator for example) and they played fine on the second or third 800m2. That's the reason I asked if somebody could reproduce the problem with their own player and disc. So far (at least here) nobody could reproduce it.
 
#2,929 ·
If your player is also located in a cabinet close to speakers it may be experiencing vibration levels that may affect its performance.
 
#2,933 ·
I have been reading this thread for quite some time and have owned an X800M2 for more thsn a year. I use is exclusively for playing discs. My experience with the X800M2 makes me believe that the problems documented in this thread fall into several groups.

Problems with the player:

Must manually select Dolby Vision (This is the only problem that I have experienced with the player.)

Problems with the location of the player:

Over heating due to lack of airflow.

Disc Playback problems due to an off level problem.

Disc Problems:

(Please remember that the UHD Blu-Ray Disc capacity is much greater than the original Blu-Ray Disk design using essentially the same technology and adding a third layer.)

Skipping and hang ups (most often on the switch to the third layer)
Almost all of these can be fixed by cleaning the disc before playing for the first time.
It is possible that some of the above may be caused by an actual bad disc.

And last, I would believe a very small number of the problems are an actual faulty piece of hardware.
 
#2,934 ·
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